


Pharos in the Red Seas

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: 46 Survivors (Sugarvine) AU [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: (a bit), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artificial Intelligence, Blood and Injury, Delirium, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Near Death Experiences, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Pain, SERGE - Freeform, Sleep Deprivation, other cameos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 18:18:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11926515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: It's like everything he sees when he tries to sleep is Nanami dying and him dying afterwards.There's a point where reality and fiction meet, and it's not nice for the already well sleep-deprived Hajime.Lucky for him, there's always a division behind him to guard his back when he's vulnerable.





	Pharos in the Red Seas

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever wrote this one fic who only serves as some kind of gateway back from an art block and you it's shit?  
> I do. I completely do.  
> Also meet Serge, elected SHSL Waifu by my server.
> 
> Before I get too many questions about this... Please read the Series info about the 46 Survivors/Sugarvine AU, that I'll add ASAP. If you wanna know the gist of it, everybody but Junko and Mukuro is alive, and V3 cast was Class 79 of Hope's Peak, who helped Class 78 and not-remnants-of-despair Class 77 to flee. Also Izuru Kamakura ain't a thing. Why would he be a thing, in an universe where Hajime became the Ultimate Counsellor?  
> Also... Chiaki is a complicated mess. She's basically a DR3 and DR2 mix because she's supposed to be DR3 Chiaki, who somehow survived her execution to be ported into an earlier version of the NWP (called Other World Program) by Kazuichi, Chihiro and Miu. So yeah, she's a really advanced robot with a human soul at this point.

Shards of golden pink flew everywhere, landing on the hard reddish, blood-tainted ground. Gears and wires fell down from the robotic shell’s abdomen, around where a human heart would be. His knees were buckling and his hands were shaking violently.

Nanami was dead.

_Again._

 

He rushed to her neck, left untouched by the giant spike who had fallen on her, to dig through the plate. That was why he had brought a screwdriver with him. Her voice synthesizer was bugging out, clawing his ears out with a loud, screeching sound. His hearing felt numb, but he was determined to save her, even if it would cost him one of his senses. As long as she remained in existence, next to him, everything would be fine. He didn’t know if he could bear to see her die again.

 

Once all screws were out, his eyes grew wide as he realized it was all too late: the chip wasn’t there. The chip which contained her very soul was gone. All there was were shards of broken glass and shards of the chip mixed with blood and oil. His hands became red and blue, as tears ran down his face, mixing with the liquid stench smelling like death and destruction. Everything was set: she was dead, and nothing could bring her back.

 

He fell to his knees, still holding some shards of the chip in his hands, dripping with despair in liquefied form. His mouth was filled with bile. When it exited his body, everything turned to acid, and everything dissolved, and it burnt, and he was dying and–

He bolted awake in his bed, sweating profusely, breathing harshly until he coughed, gasping and searching for air.

 

He took his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. It was the fifth time in a mere two days he had this kind of nightmares. It was Nanami dying over and over and over again. His lungs were burning from the repeated mishaps of his brain. He clutched his chest but stayed up,

Not feeling like getting plagued by horrifying dreams (if he could call those “dreams”), he got up, staggering to the main tech room. The dark corridors were only navigable thanks to the green exit lights over the biggest doors. This didn’t matter anyway: his eyes would burn if too much light would reach them.

 

He unlocked the door after a few failed attempts at putting his hand on the recognition screen. Exhaustion was starting to reach out to him, huh? He rubbed his half-awaken eyes again and entered the room.

He expected to be directly facing Nanami’s monitor, but instead, all he had was this stupid bucket with some kind of AI into it. The only reason this thing was still around was because of Kiibo, so he brushed it off and continued.

 

“Administrator Hajime Hinata, what are you doing here?”

Great. Fujisaki had programmed it to monitor entrances to avoid as much wreck as possible since the day Ouma had sneaked in to draw silly faces on Kiibo during his maintenance while Iruma was away. Did it have to be so formal though?

 

“I’m checking on Nanami.”

“It is half past four in the morning, Administrator. I believe you should be sleeping” replied the bucket.

“Shut up.”

“This is not welcome in an office environment from an Administrator.”

 “Just let me check on Nanami.”

“You said this already three times tonight.”

_Oh._

 

“Wait, three times?! It’s the first time I come here tonight!”

Hajime was utterly confused. The bucket must have meant something else, and he didn’t hear it properly. That was it.

“Administrator Hinata, your vitals tell me you are sleep-deprived and going through bedrest for the next three days. I believe you should go to the infirmary and call for Doctor Mikan Tsumiki or Doctor Chikara Kenkou.”

And now, now he felt the flaring pain all across his chest. Great timing there, body.

“Administrator, you may be bleeding. Should I call Doctor Tsumiki?”

“No. Just let me check on Nanami. I’m fine.”

 

He could hear a strange sound, before a pinkish light filled the otherwise dark laboratory. The doors had be opened.

“Access granted, Administrator Hinata. If anything is wrong, contact Doctor Tsumiki as soon as possible.”

“Thanks, Serge.”

“You are welcome, Administrator.”

 

He made his way to the next room, where he was greeted by Nanami’s avatar on the biggest screen of the room. He let out a sigh of relief as he staggered to her, tripping over a cable and falling to the ground. He felt… Dizzy all of a sudden. The all-nighters were really eating him from the inside. If only all these nightmares weren’t poisoning his sleep…

“Na…” her muffled voice muttered.

 

Hajime tried his hardest to get up again, arms shaking so badly he could only sit against the nearest wall. It didn’t matter anyway. She was still there. Nanami was still alive. He hadn’t lost her or anybody else. Vague memories were depicting similar occurrences, as if they were slightly different alternate versions of this event. He felt so numb, yet so light-headed.

_“Hinata? Hinata? Hina…? Ata…? A..a…?Aa…”_

Nanami’s voice kept calling for him, but his legs wouldn’t budge, so he just stayed there and looked at her. Maybe he would finally sleep peacefully if he could hear the noises of her operating system and her muffled, almost quiet voice…

 

* * *

 

 

A blinding light invaded the room, waking him up. Hajime grumbled under his breath, rubbing his eyes. Who the fuck could possibly turn on the lights right now?! That was inappropriate!

“Hey, why are you…”

 

His vision, which had been swimming until this moment, cleared up enough to reveal black-and-white figures over him. The operation table lamp-esque thing was what was burning his retinas out. His panic was confronted by numb pain and a pair of hands as he weakly tried to get up. He had to escape from the grasp of the Despairs over him.

 _“He’s awake! Where’s Dr Kenkou?!”_ a voice cried out. It was rather high-pitched, but he could tell a man was speaking.

_“Doctor Chikara Kenkou is scheduled to arrive in approximately five minutes.”_

Was Serge on with this too?! It meant Fujisaki was Despair!

 

“Let me go you bas… bastards…” tried to scream Hajime, panicking over his predicament.

 _“C-can’t she hurry?! He’s trying to escape and she’s the only one able to anesthetize!”_ screamed a female voice.

It almost sounded like Tsumiki… Maybe it was all an illusion. He felt so numb, barely feeling anything except for the things over his wrists and ankles, preventing him from escaping anyway. He also felt quite naked…

 

His vision blurred and his earing got muffled again before clearing out, only for a familiar pigtailed nightmare entered the room.

 _“I’m heeeeeeere!! Who’s our patient todaaaaaay?”_ she squealed.

Fucking Enoshima, or more than likely an imposter posing as her. She was dead, right? He could remember Harukawa pulling the trigger on her, at least.

 

_“Oh, it’s Hinata. He’s half-dead anyway.”_

_“Not fun! There’s not much else to do, isn’t it? Let’s knock him out before he kills himself!”_

Her disgusting face went right into his field of vision. He winced and gave her the worst eye he could for all the pain and horror she brought to the world. Everything was unsure now… Nanami! What had happened to her?!

He tried to scream her name but nothing came out of his mouth. He felt his eyes tear up in mental agony, as he reached out for his ear device, only to find out it wasn’t there. What had happened to it? Was it broken? Did they snatch it from him while he was asleep? What had happened to him anyway? When did he get abducted by Despairs? His mind was too foggy to get any kind of understanding from it. He was beyond fucked. Nobody could reach to him, nobody could even know what situation he was in if he couldn’t contact them!

 

_“You’re bleeding out, …? What a shame! …bo, prepare the….!”_

His hearing was giving up on him, too tired and too damaged to keep up with the chatter all around him. The smell of blood was too much for him to the point he wanted to vomit, but his neck wouldn’t budge.

 

_“…ck,…s havin …,’s goin to … eve…ing! Fetch …m a bucket or som…ing!”_

_“…re, le… take th… ne!”_

_“No, … can’t take …! …not …eant to be … ins…de!”_

_“Fuck, that’s…fuck… sentient …?! Ki…, fetch anothe...!”_

 

He gagged for a bit before he smelled something else than blood. His nausea calmed down, so did he. Was this the… Anesthetizing gas they had mentioned earlier? Great, just fucking great… At least, the pain in his chest was starting to subdue…  He hadn’t managed to save anyone, or to know whether or not they had made it…

Before he knew it, his vision had gone pitch black.

 

* * *

 

 

When Hajime woke up, he found himself to be in an environment with bright lights, feeling weaker than usual. All his limbs felt like lead, he was only able to move his neck to look around the room he had found himself in. Nobody seemed to be around, except for one deep, robotic voice coming from a screen.

“Good afternoon, Administrator Hajime Hinata.”

“Serge…?”

 

The screen turned on, showing the avatar of a bucket. A bunch of characters he couldn’t be bothered to read showed up next to the blue piece of virtual plastic. Probably some vitals of him.

“It is indeed me, Administrator.”

“What happened…? I… Can’t remember anything… Why am I alone…?”

“I was keeping a guard on you until you would awake. As to what happened on yesterday night…”

“Wait… How long was I out…?”

 

There was a numb pain all across his chest and some vague shards of memory scattered around his foggy brain. He felt limp, devoid of any energy, unable to even sit up to actually face the screen. Instead, the screen moved on top of him, attached to a rail over the bed, holding the bucket itself. What a weird piece of technology.

“Administrator, you were out for seven and a half hours since you were woken up from your operation. You seem not to remember waking up today at seven. You lost consciousness when, I quote, ‘checking up on Nanami’.”

 

He could remember seeing Nanami’s monitor before falling to the ground. Then, the next thing he remembered was Junko over his face wanting to end him off since he was already dying.

“Serge… I got operated, right…? This is the clinic of our division…”

“You got indeed operated after Branch Lead Chiaki Nanami requested me to grant you immediate medical attention.”

“Operated… For what…?”

“Your chest wound had reopened, leading to important blood loss. You had to be operated to stop the external haemorrhage.”

 

So that was what had happened… He hadn’t fallen asleep. He had passed out from blood loss. The idea itself was enough to make him pale. His rather morbid curiosity still liberated his right arm from its shell of lead, as he took off some of the sheets over him, only to see himself dressed in a button-up pyjama top. This wasn’t right, wasn’t it? Usually they would all get hospital gowns. It could only mean one thing.

Sure enough, he had a brand-new bandage all over his chest, right where his wound was. A quick look to his left revealed an IV in his wrist’s veins. Great, Kirigiri would get to be the admin for a bit longer would she?

 

“Incoming transmission. Technology Brand Lead Chiaki Nanami wants to see you know. Should I allow her to use this screen?”

Fuck. He looked like crap and felt like crap, but she was probably worried for him.

“Yes.”

“Understood, Administrator.”

 

Serge’s bucket avatar got replaced by a small, rather crude avatar of Nanami. Usually she would only display her head, but she was tired of just being a disembodied head, so there was no surprise there. This new version of her avatar was even pretty cute, if he thought so himself.

“Hi Nanami…”

His voice was so weak it wasn’t even laughable anymore.

“Good afternoon, Hinata…”

Her response didn’t wield a lot of conviction either.

 

Nanami crossed her arms, a worried look on her face. She looking so human again, he had to adjust to her new appearance. This wasn’t the time to admire the work Yonaga and Yamada had put in.

“Huh… Sorry for scaring you, I guess…”

“Hinata… That’s not what you should be telling me.”

“What should I… Be telling you then…? You know that I’m injured…”

“No, the true reason why you kept coming to my monitor in the middle of the night despite bedrest…”

Well, fuck.

 

“Serge, can you… Enter P-mode, please…?”

“Understood, Administrator Hinata. I will now enter privacy mode for one hour.”

“Thanks…”

 

The avatar gave him a suspecting look, as if she was trying to read his mind by reading his facial expression.

“It must be… Really important for you to deactivate Serge’s recording…” she finally said.

“It’s more like it’s… Very personal, y’know… I… I don’t even know how to say this to you…”

He paused and gulped.

“You swear not to tell anyone… Not even Naegi or Kiibo… Okay…?”

A small smile appeared on-screen.

“Of course.”

 

Hajime took a deep breath and sighed. This was going to be quite the embarrassing discussion.

“I… I’ve got vivid nightmares ever since your body got destroyed in Tartarus Tower… I always see you die in their hands… with metal flying everywhere… blood oozing with oil… your chip shattered…”

He felt his throat knot and his eyes wet.

“Hah… I… I always wake up violently… I’ve not slept for… more than two hours in two days… I… I know you’re not dead, but… But…”

He sobbed. This so not like him even him was thinking of himself as out-of-character.

 

“Hinata… It’s okay to have night terrors… You are worried for me because I almost died again, but you saved me, even after you got injured protecting me… I guess it’s our fault for not trying to get to the root issue immediately…”

Her tone was gentle, yet concerned. If only… If only she didn’t have to worry about him.

“You’re too hard on yourself again… Just rest and think about yourself and only that for a bit, okay? I’ll be right beside you once Souda and Fujisaki are finished on the small monitor…”

“Small monitor…?”

“You’ll see…”

 

A smile creeped up on his face as he felt his exhaustion catching up to him. With Nanami next to him, he had nothing to worry about. This time, no nightmare could reach to him.

“Goodnight, Hinata…” she said in a soft tone.

“G’night…”

 

* * *

 

 

“Welcome, Administrator Kyoko Kirigiri. Please disinfect yourself before entering the clinic using the appropriate devices. Keep a low tone around the ill and the injured. Thank you for your understanding.”

“Received perfectly, Serge.”

 

The detective, dressed in a nurse-like outfit, made her way to her superior’s bed. His sound, calm breathing contrasted heavily with the panic he had caused earlier this day.

“Hello again, Nanami.”

“Hello, Kirigiri. Is Naegi with you?”

“He’s coming a bit later. He had to finish working on a report, if I’m not mistaken.”

 

Serge’s voice resonated again.

“Welcome, Sub-Administrator Makoto Naegi. Please disinfect yourself before entering the clinic using the appropriate devices. Keep a low tone around the ill and the injured. Thank you for your understanding.”

“Roger!”

 

The little man made his way to the bed, joining the two women. He was still rubbing his tiredness away from the night but the smile on his face could only translate into relief that everything was all right and was going to be all right.

“Kenkou asked us to tell her if Hinata was feeling any better. What does Akamatsu send to the 15th?”

Kirigiri turned her head towards the monitor.

“Nanami, you’re more in the know than us. What do you think about this?”

 

The avatar smiled.

“Hinata is going to be better as long as we keep him in check. Tell them not to worry for us, we’ll always be all right, hm?”

Naegi nodded.

“Yep! That’s the spirit!”

 

Inside of her, Chiaki knew what she had to do to ensure this would happen. Protection and care were reciprocal things, right? She wouldn’t let him get injured for her ever again.

This had started by telling Serge about his bleeding out.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't include the part where the operation nightmare is revealed to just be the delirium mentionned in the tags did I


End file.
